UNIVERSITIES will be able to offer fast-track degrees with a higher annual tuition fee under government plans.

The two-year courses will cost more per year than their longer equivalents but will be no more expensive over their entirety, and students could save money on housing and living expenses.

The Department for Education is yet to confirm the higher fees, which would need Parliament's approval, but they could be as much as £13,500 a year.

Students would have to work more intensely, while their holidays would be significantly shorter than their peers paying up to £9,000 a year on three or four-year degrees.

Universities minister Jo Johnson was announcing the plan at a Universities UK conference in central London today.

He is due to say: "This Bill gives us the chance to introduce new and flexible ways of learning.

"Students are crying out for more flexible courses, modes of study which they can fit around work and life, shorter courses that enable them to get into and back into work more quickly, and courses that equip them with the skills that the modern workplace needs.

"I absolutely recognise that for many students the classic three-year residential model will remain the preferred option.

"But it clearly must not be the only option."

Numerous institutions blamed the tuition fee cap as a barrier to introducing accelerated courses, according to government research published last year.

It also found that students may be reluctant to sacrifice their holidays because they find them valuable to undertake work experience or paid employment.

If the plans are successful, it would be the first rise to tuition fees since 2012 when the coalition government nearly tripled the cap in England from £3,290.